OUGD505 - Design Practice 2 - Studio Brief 02 - Product Range Distribution - Wayfinding for Dementia

I have started looking at wayfinding as one of my potential routes for the brief.

I have come across this article called 'Wayfinding for People With Dementia: The Role of Architectural Design' by Gesine Marquardt, who is a researcher at the Chair of Socialand Healthcare Building and Design in the Department of Architecture at Dresden University of Technology in Dresden, Germany.

http://alzheimer-architecture.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Wayfinding-for-People-With-Dementia_HS.pdf

I have picked out some of the key elements from the study; things that I think could be useful for a potential wayfinding project.


 Spatial disorientation and declining wayfinding abilities are among the early symptoms of dementia, limiting a person’s ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) independently and ultimately, perhaps leading to institutionalization. A prerequisite to maintaining residents’ quality of life in a nursing home is their ability to orient themselves within their new environment.

The design of the physical environment plays a major role in supporting the wayfinding abilities of people with dementia. The floor plan design of a nursing home in particular has a significant influence on residents’ spatial orientation and wayfinding. Additional interventions such as signage, furnishing, lighting, and colors are additional supporting features but they cannot compensate for an adverse architectural design. Conclusions: For the creation of a supportive, dementia

-Finding one’s way is an essential ability and a prerequisite for autonomy and independence, thereby promoting self-sufficiency and self-esteem. However, spatial disorientation and declining wayfinding abilities are among the frequently mentioned early symptoms of dementia.

-aphasia (inability to speak),
-apraxia (disorder of motor planning),
-agnosia (inability to recognize objects, shapes, persons, etc.)

-The process of finding one’s way includes knowing where you are, knowing your destination, knowing (and following) the best route to the destination, recognizing the destination upon arrival, and finding the way back

-As Örluv points out, people with dementia suffer from “disorientation to an extent that has made independent living impossible [but it] does not preclude a remaining capacity to approach, in a constructive and systematic way, the issue of where one is"